Lawyers Making a Difference
Through the Asylum Legal Representation Program at Human Rights First, volunteer lawyers have the unique opportunity to change the lives of refugees by helping them win asylum in the United States. Our program’s clients have fled from political, religious, ethnic, and gender-based persecution in countries plagued by human rights violations. They cannot afford counsel and desperately need representation. Volunteer lawyers learn about U.S. asylum law and international human rights law and have the chance to represent individual clients at an asylum interview or a hearing before an immigration judge.
Through its legal representation work, the Refugee Protection Program serves as a more effective advocate for legal reform and policy change on issues affecting asylum seekers in the United States. The cases assigned to pro bono volunteers through the representation program inform Human Rights First’s advocacy goals by providing real-life evidence of the challenges asylum seekers face upon their arrival in the United States.
Attorneys: Volunteer with These Organizations
“By providing representation to asylum seekers, we are contributing to the fight for a better world.”
— Pro bono lawyer Melvina Lecaros, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
New York – Human Rights First
Washington, DC – Human Rights First
Minnesota – Minnesota Advocates
San Diego – Casa Cornelia
San Francisco – Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
Boston – Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project
Pro Bono Success Stories
Brooklyn Law School Safe Harbor Clinic
Brooklyn Law School professors and students help win asylum for a woman from the Middle East fleeing the threat of a forced marriage and honor killing.
Attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP help win asylum for a Honduran human rights activist.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP help win asylum for a human rights advocate from Chad.
Attorney at McDermott Will & Emery LLP helps win asylum for a Bhutanese human rights advocate.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Attorneys at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP win asylum for an Afghan doctor who fled torture at the hand of the Taliban after helping a woman deliver her baby.
Attorney at McCarter & English, LLP wins asylum for client after 3 ½ years in detention.
Attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell win asylum and release from detention for Congolese torture survivor.
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae L.L.P.
Attorneys at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae L.L.P. win asylum for gay couple who in Colombia were targeted for their sexual orientation.
Attorney at Lowenstein Sandler PC wins asylum for law student pro-democracy activist and torture survivor from Sudan.
Attorneys at Shulte Roth & Zabel LLP win asylum for Congoleseminister’s family and reunite the family’s young children with their parents.
Howrey Simon Arnold & White, L.L.P.
Attorneys at Howrey Simon Arnold & White, L.L.P. win asylum for a southern Sudanese student activist.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher L.L.P.
Attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher L.L.P. continue to fight for asylum for their formerly detained client, a pro-democracy activist
and torture survivor from Cameroon, who applied for asylum six years ago.
Attorneys at Latham & Watkins win asylum for a Chechen doctor whose life was threatened by both Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels.